Riding the Raisina Tiger

Riding the Raisina Tiger - a Politico-military thriller about an Army Chief who decided to take things into his own hands. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD ON 26 JAN ON OCCASION OF REPUBLIC DAY FROM https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Raisina-Tiger-Story-military-ebook/dp/B01ALCCNSS

Custom Search Engine - Scans Selected News Sites

Monday, 21 September 2015

Army officers to
focus on truce violations; last flag meet took place 20 months ago

Amir Karim Tantray

Tribune News Service

Jammu, September 20

Amid the increasing
hostility between India and Pakistan, brigade commanders on both sides will
hold a flag meeting at Chakan da Bagh crossing on the Line of Control (LoC) in
Poonch tomorrow, more than a year-and-a-half after the previous meeting.

Field officers last
met on January 14, 2014, and discussed the prevailing situation. Since then,
they were trading bullets and shells.

Now, when hostility
has reached its peak and people on both side are facing the heat, India and
Pakistan decided to hold a flag meeting 20 months after the last meeting. The
meeting will focus on ceasefire violations on the LoC and its fallout.

Udhampur-based
defence spokesperson SD Goswami said field commanders would discuss modalities
to defuse the tense situation. “Ceasefire violations escalated in the last few
days and resulted in a large number of civilian casualties and collateral
damage to property,” he said.

Relations between
the two countries are on the decline and both sides have been accusing each other
of violating the 2003 ceasefire agreement. Due to truce violations on the LoC,
six civilians and a Border Security Force (BSF) assistant sub-inspector have
been killed. Scores of people have received injuries and there has been
extensive damage to property as well.

Pakistan has
violated the truce agreement 267 times so far this year. Pakistan resorted to
unprovoked firing 57 times in August alone.

Even after holding
talks between Directors General of the BSF and Pakistan Rangers in New Delhi on
September 9, there was no let-up in shelling and firing on the LoC.

Though the BSF and
Rangers are mainly looking after defence on the international border, it was
expected that the meeting could have an impact on the LoC as well. But firing
and shelling continued on the LoC.

Now, all eyes are on
the scheduled flag meeting at the Chakan da Bagh to bring some respite to
people living on both sides of the LoC.

More than 20 lakh
civilians residing for decades on land owned by the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
are set to have better living conditions with the ministry working new
guidelines for Cantonment Boards.

Currently there are
62 cantonments in the country located in 19 states and fall under the
jurisdiction of five Army Commands. Ambala, Jalandhar, Kasauli, Ferozepore,
Meerut, Dehradun, Fardidkot and Mamum ( near Pathankot) are some of the major
cantonments in north India.

The total area
covered by the cantonments is 1,86, lakh acres with a population of 20.91 lakh
(as per 2011 Census).

Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar while addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee
attached to his ministry said: “The government is committed to resolving the
problems faced in cantonment areas.” This would include weeding out archaic
provisions and replacing these with more realistic rules. The meeting was held
in Goa today.

A number of
representations have been made to the MoD about the difficulties faced by
civilian residents of cantonments.

These relate to
closure of roads in cantonments, problems connected with the works of Defence
Act, 1903, inordinate delay in transfer and mutation of properties held on old
grant or lease, sub-division and change of purpose, resumption of properties
held on old grant, renewal of expired leases, conversion of old grant or
leasehold sites in civil areas of the cantonments into freehold and restriction
on construction of building and revision of building bye-law.

The establishment of
cantonments started during the British period with the need for quartering the
troops. Housing was the core objective.

Taking part in the
discussion, Members of Parliament have suggested that the government should
endeavour to build “Smart Cantonments” on the line of Smart Cities.

MoD spokesperson
Sitanshu Kar said: “Some MPs felt that MoD should take immediate steps to
improve the living conditions of civilian populace in cantonment areas.”

One suggestion was
to allow existing owners to carry out repair and restoration work of the
buildings and automatic extension of leasehold of property, Kar said.

Around 12 years
after he retired, a Brigadier has finally won a battle for grant of war injury
pension for wounds that were sustained while serving in an operational area in
1998.

The Chandigarh Bench
of the Armed Force Tribunal comprising Justice Prakash Krishna and Air Marshal
SC Mukul observed that the petitioner, Brig Vir Pal Singh’s case was covered
not only by government policy on the subject but also by interpretation of the said
rules by the court, including the Supreme Court.

The officer, while
commanding an infantry brigade, had been directed to carry out an operational
recce under Operation Rakshak in the Rajouri sector of Jammu and Kashmir in
1998, when he met with an accident and sustained injuries in his spine and
knee.

The incident was
classified as a battle casualty by a duly constituted court of inquiry, but on
retirement he was granted only normal disability pension and not war injury
pension as was admissible. The release medical board also recorded that his
disability was incurred in field area under Operation Rakshak.

He contended the
Government of India’s letter issued in 2001 entitles all cases of injuries and
accidents taking place in areas where operations are notified to war injury
pension on disability.

A special Army order
of 1985 clearly provides that injuries sustained during maintenance of internal
security or aid to covil authorities are classified as battle casualties for
financial purposes. Despite these rules, the petitioned pointed out that his
claim for war injury was rejected by the government on the pretext that his
injury was not covered under the regulations.

New Delhi:A six-day exhibition,
"Shauryanjali" showcasing major battle scenes and captured tanks of
the Pakistani Army during the 1965 war, started at central Delhi's Rajpath
today, as a part of golden jubilee celebrations of the war.

The exhibition will
give the public a chance to view captured Pakistani Patton and Sherman tanks as
well as the milestone reading "Lahore 13 km" that was brought back by
the Indian Army, showcasing how deep the troops had entered into Pakistan.

At the opening
ceremony, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said, "I feel that the 1965
war was the first major war that India won. Some people raise the question
whether India won or was there a stalemate. Even as a nine-year-old kid, I was
of the firm opinion that India won hands down."

For finance
minister, Arun Jaitley, it was a walk down memory lane. He said, "I
remember as a young school boy, when our armed forces were defending our
borders, the whole country used to be tuned into the radio, supporting the
armed forces emotionally and materially."

The six-day event
will also see manoeuvre by fighter jets and stunts by para troopers.

Mr Prasad said that
the soldiers had brought back the prestige of the country in 1965 after the
loss in the 1962 war against China.

India had captured
1,920 kilometres of Pakistani land while Pakistan had taken control over 540
kilometres of Indian territory in the 1965 war. In total, 2,862 soldiers gave
up their life protecting the motherland and 211 of them were given gallantry
awards.

Among those martyrs
was the celebrated Company Quartermaster Havildar Abdul Hamid, a soldier in the
4th Battalion of The Grenadiers of the Indian Army. He was the posthumous
recipient of India's highest military decoration, the Param Vir Chakra.

http://www.risingkashmir.com/news/has-goi-conceded-daulat-beg-oldie/

Has GoI conceded
Daulat Beg Oldie?

In April 2013,
reported incursions of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) in Daulat Beg
Oldie in the cold desert region of Ladakh made mainstream Indian media
hysterical but last month PLA hosted Indian Army at the same location.

Does it imply that
the Government of India (GoI) has given up its claim on Daulat Beg Oldie?

PRO Army, Lt Col
Manish Kumar said Indian Army and the PLA differ in perception regarding the
Line of Actual Control (LAC), which divides the territories between India and
China.

Lt Col Kumar said
there was a mechanism in place for border post management and the two armies
were holding border post meetings at different locations.

Defence sources said
earlier the Indian Army only held border post meetings with the Chinese Army at
Spanggur, Nathu La and Bumla but now the two armies have added two more sectors
at Daulat Beg Oldiee and Kibithu.

Daulat Beg Oldie
comes under the domain of 14 Corps.

PRO Defence Northern
Command, Col S D Goswami said LAC is matter of perception and if the PLA
ventures into the Indian territory, Indian Army ventures into Chinese
territory.

“If they come here, we also go
there,” he said.

Col Goswami said the two armies
conduct patrolling of the areas as per their perception.

However, he said one thing was
sure that Daulat Beg Oldie was not on the Chinese side.

“Daulat Beg Oldie for sure is on
our side,” Col Goswami said.

In April 2013, Daulat Beg Oldie
region, a historic spot on the famed Silk Route, was in news over reports of
Chinese incursion.

The confrontation between the
two armies had reached to such a level that the Indian Air Force (AIF) landed
its biggest war plane C 130J-30 Super Hercules aircraft at the world’s highest
Daulat Beg Oldie airstrip, which is located at 16,614 feet in the Aksai Chin.

An airstrip in Daulat Beg Oldie
was built during the Indo-China War in 1962 and came into prominence when
packet aircraft of the IAF operated between 1962 and 1965.

After the 1962 war, India
claimed that China was occupying about 33,000 sq km of its territory in the
Aksai Chin region of Ladakh.

In response, China alleged that
India was occupying 90,000 square km and even went on saying that Indian state
of Arunachal Pradesh is actually part of its territory.

Both New Delhi and Beijing have
tried to mend their relations over the decades.

However, China's oft repeated
claim for Arunachal Pradesh and Beijing’s proximity with Islamabad is not going
well with New Delhi.

Likewise, India’s posture on
Tibet initially and providing asylum to Dalai Lama was taken seriously by
China.

Each side has been improving its
military and logistics capabilities in the region and reinforcing their
capabilities in the area, despite showing interest in negotiations.

The airbases that India of late
has started reconstructing were built for troop movement prior to 1962 war but
abandoned by the Indian Army in 1966.

However, the situation along LAC
has been relatively peaceful since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to
China earlier this year but whether or not the peace is a result of GoI having
given up Daulat Beg Oldie remains to be seen.

In a move that might
further strengthen Indo-US defence ties, India has reportedly approved the
much-delayed deal to buy 22 Apache attack and 15 Chinook helicopters from the
US.

The Indian Finance
Ministry has given green signals to the deal, which has been pending approval
for the last three years. The new development comes ahead of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's visit to the US where he will be addressing the United Nations
General Assembly in New York and also meet US President Barack Obama.

The deal will be
taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in its meeting on Tuesday
and is expected to be cleared, as the Defence Ministry had cleared the proposal
back in April 2015.

"We have
conveyed our no objections to the deal being considered by the CCS,"
Hindustan Times quoted a senior Finance Ministry official.

The deal has
survived 13 price extensions from US defence major, Boeing, that manufactures
the copters. Though the deal will cost India $3.1 billion, it will be worth
every penny since India still uses vintage Soviet Union/Russian attack and
heavy-lift choppers.

The 22 Apache AH 64D
Longbow helicopters are the world's most advanced multi-role combat
helicopters, featuring all-weather and night fighting features, ability to
track up to 128 targets in less than a minute and engage with 16, stealth
characteristics, glass cockpit, advanced sensors and beyond visual range missiles.
India will also be acquiring Hellfire missiles and around 8,000 rockets.

Apache AH 64D
Longbow was chosen after Indian armed forces pitted it against Russia's Mi-28
following the withdrawal of Eurocopter's Tiger and AgustaWestland's A129
Mangusta from the competition.

The 15 CH-47F
Chinook heavy-lift copters with tandem rotors will add an edge to Indian
air-lift capabilities. The Chinook choppers are multi-role, with its primary
mission being transport of troops, artillery, equipment, and fuel.

The Indian Air Force
will be greatly benefited by its acquisition as they will also be used for
inserting troops in high altitude areas. They can also carry M777 howitzers via
slings. The Chinooks were pitted against Russian Mi-26. The deal will also have
the option of purchasing another six.

CH-47 'Chinook'
helicopter

India will acquire
15 CH-47F Chinook heavy-lift from US.Reuters

Meanwhile, IHS
Jane's has reported about the fast-tracking of the delayed acquisition of 145
BAE Systems M777 155 mm/39 calibre lightweight howitzers for the Indian Army.
The deal is being done through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route and both
the countries are working together drafting the letter of acceptance (LoA),
which is being worked out by consultations between the Defence Ministry and the
Pentagon.

Delivery schedules,
guarantees, after-sales technical service, materiel, and spares support are all
included in the LoA. The deal will be worth $700 million.